Our Client:
Our client is a contemporary art gallery that believes in the preservation and celebration of creativity. Since the gallery’s inception, it has been dedicated to amplifying contemporary artistic voices to ensure their vital contributions to creativity continue to inspire, challenge, and enrich our world.
The Role:
As Marketing and Communications Manager, you will play a pivotal role in driving the gallery’s growth and audience engagement and development as well as in promoting the Gallery and communicating its values across the international art world. The successful candidate will be an experienced professional with solid press contacts in London, a very self-motivated and disciplined individual. Your responsibilities will encompass audience segmentation, digital and social strategy, and creative content ideation and production. Additionally, you will oversee CRM strategy, client life cycles, and user experience, ensuring every interaction is both creative and effective.
You should have:
- Proven experience in marketing in the contemporary art world with a focus on brand management, strategic planning, and CRM.
- Strong blend of creative and analytical skills, with both an aesthetic / linguistic and a data-driven mindset.
- An ability to oversee marketing campaigns from start to finish, with savvy in content, brand messaging, UX/UI, channel strategy, implementation, community engagement, tracking and analytics, and reporting and optimisation.
- A love for creative pursuits – design, film, storytelling, aesthetics, language and creativity.
- Excellent leadership/team management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate a high- performing team.
- A natural flair and passion for all things marketing.
- Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and persuasively.
- Proficiency in leading digital marketing tools and platforms.
- Deep knowledge of the contemporary art market and/or art history.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and adapt quickly to changing priorities.
- A passion for the arts and a commitment to promoting cultural engagement and education.
Key responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain the gallery’s brand identity, ensuring consistency across all marketing channels and materials.
- Collaborate with the Design team to develop innovative brand assets, including logos, visual elements, and messaging.
- Conduct brand audits and market research to identify opportunities for brand enhancement and differentiation.
- Ensure brand guidelines are communicated and adhered to by internal and external stakeholders across all communication touch points.
Content and Creative:
- Work closely with the gallery’s team to develop different types of content – encouraging experimentation and pushing new ideas to engage with the various audience groups
- Help to guide the content strategy for exhibitions and for wider gallery projects
- Implement and execute marketing campaign timelines for gallery exhibitions
- Champion a culture of creativity, content and collaboration within the wider team – sharing and promoting inspiring marketing campaigns and clever ideas from the art industry and beyond
- Contribute to editorial direction for content – understanding the key hooks and messages that are likely to delight and inspire relevant audiences
Strategy:
- Develop a deep understanding of the gallery’s market positioning and key audience groups in order to develop marketing and content strategies that align with their needs and desires
- Create in-depth customer journey maps to truly understand how audiences engage with the gallery and its artists
- Develop detailed, sustainable and relevant CRM schema to most effectively segment the audience and database
- Identify emerging trends and insights in the art market and cultural landscape to inform strategic decision-making.
- Explore appropriate uses of AI and other emerging tools to streamline content production and other aspects of the marketing funnel
- Monitor competitor activities and industry developments to identify opportunities and threats, adjusting strategies accordingly.
- Collaborate and share marketing efforts with sales, programming, client services, and other departments to ensure brand alignment across all touchpoints.
Reporting & Analytics:
- Stay abreast of industry trends, market developments, and consumer behaviours to anticipate shifts in audience preferences and behaviours.
- Analyse marketing data and metrics to uncover actionable insights and opportunities for growth.
- Provide monthly insight reports and updates to senior management on marketing performance, key initiatives, and challenges.
- Monitor, manage and optimise all digital ad campaigns
- Identify actionable insights from analytics reports and deliver these to the wider team to improve performance and maximise client development opportunities
Management:
- Lead and mentor a Marketing Assistant, providing guidance, support, and professional development opportunities.
- Oversee the execution of marketing campaigns, ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest quality standards.
- Ensure all of the gallery’s visual touchpoints (website pages, social media, blogs, newsletters, printed materials etc) are optimised towards the marketing objectives and align with gold-standard UX and UI principles.
- Manage relationships with external vendors, agencies, and partners to support the execution of marketing initiatives.
- Monitor and manage the marketing budget, allocating resources effectively to maximise ROI.
Communications and PR:
- Draft and implement creative and targeted press campaigns relating to London gallery exhibitions, leading local and international art fairs and off-site projects.
- Secure informed and comprehensive print and online coverage for gallery exhibitions and art fairs in targeted media (broadsheets, broadcast, specialist arts, consumer, lifestyle publications, etc.)
- Regularly meet with press to create and maintain relationships & stay up to date on changes in the UK media landscape.
- Contribute to and build the gallery’s database of press contacts in the UK.
- Draft press releases for exhibitions, working closely with the artist and their team to communicate their work.
- Design press mailers and distribute to press.
- Manage the process of compiling the gallery’s forward programme document and ensuring it is kept up to date
- Work closely with PR agencies, museums or partner galleries on external artist exhibitions, helping to share/ approve materials, and collaborate on press campaigns.
- Respond to image / press requests that come into media relations account
- Work closely with artist studios and staff to compile assets for upcoming exhibitions and projects.
- Draft briefings for artist and staff interviews before any media opportunities.
- Conduct walk-throughs of exhibitions with press
- Where necessary, draft artist responses to media enquiries, or statements for the gallery’s senior team.
- Track media coverage each week, and compile into a weekly report.
- Create media / press packs for each exhibition for artist studios’ archives.
- Oversee interviews and photo shoots, and arrange copy approval and fact-checking with journalists, as appropriate.
- Manage press cuttings with front of house, ensuring high quality and all are added to the server/ artist press packs.
- Plan and deliver press events in London where required.
- Coordinate press trips to artist studios and external / museum exhibitions as needed
- Contribute to event guest lists.
Schedule: Full-time
Salary: Up to around £45k (DOE)